Slipping away
by hidden stranger
Summary: Julian finds Maurice feeling a bit under the weather, immediatly believing that his aye aye has been stricken with a rare and very leathal cold, he seeks help from the penguins, and from one in particular, please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

A/N, greetings all who are reading this, glad to know you stumbled upon my latest in the POM series! This will mostly be a Private/Julian fic, dunno how it will turn out so lets just see what happens shall we?

666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

"Aha! Take that for hurting the royal toe by putting yourself in my walking way!" King Julian yelled triumpently at the golf club he kicked in aggression.

"Mort! Be moving the golfy club out of my way!" He watched as the small mouse lemur dragged the club over to the side and tossed it over the edge. The smallest lemur had quite a bit of strength for his tiny stature when it came to the protection of his beloved ones, the feet.

Standing upright Julian looked around for his secound in command. He couldn't see him very well, was he hiding?

_A game of hide and seeking was in session and noone was alerting the king of this? Why not?_ The tall lemur thought to himself. Checking a few known sneaking passageways they used often in the game, Julian finally came upon his aye aye. Something didn't fit though, he looked, a bit odd.

Maurice stood next to the bottom of the habitat, coughing a fit. His eyes were red and bloodshot, a bit of snot was creeping down one nostril, quickly wiped away by the lemur's paw. He looked up and faced Julian, his legs shaking as he supported himself by one paw on the wall of the habitat, he could barely stand.

"Eurr, Maurice? What are you doing?" The king questioned in a voice of slight caution, his instincts, while blinded by ignorance and pride, still managed to get through the thick skull of the lemur that his aid was not exactly okay. Julian took a small step back, tiny, a little half step, yeah, right there.

Maurice opened his mouth to respond but only found himself having to lean over and cough hard. Julian stood for a secound before finding a serious problem on his hands. He had heard that cough before, not by Maurice, but other lemurs in his old kingdom. His secound in command had been hit with the Madagascar cold. It was a bit off a bland name he always thought, but that was what had been deemed to every one of the lemur's who succomed to this horrible illness.

Julian gasped in realization of what was happening to Maurice, yelling out to his third in command...ugh although he couldn't really see how that thing could make things better, Mort, to get over to the two of them.

"Mort! Be bringing Maurice inside the royal secret passage, he needs to get lying down NOW!" The ringtail shouted, making the plushy lemur jump and then drag his big booty'd buddy over through the hidden gateway they'd found monthes ago, hidden behind one of the ferns. He marched ahead as the little lemur tried his best to catch up while carrying the huge form of his friend. Julian occasionally glance back to make sure they were all still together, giving a break to all of them to rest momentarily so they could continue. Then both he and ever loyal servant Mort dragged the gray lemur to the other end of the passage, opening up at the women's restroom of the hospital. Helping lift the large friend of theirs, they quickly darted behind the legs of the stall as they heard someone enter the bathroom.

Julian put a finger to his lips as he watched Alice enter the restroom and head for the sink. Growling loudly, she had in no doubt been at the recieving end of Phil and Mason's poo flinging. She clenched her teeth as she douse her manly like hands in sanitizer and then rinsing madly. Looking in the mirror she took her hat off and combed her hair back and replaced the cap and headed out. Julian peekout from under the stall before motioning for the small sevant to follow. They made their way to the recovery room, pausing for a minute to allow the king the joys of the vibrating bed before hoisting Maurice ontop of it. The gray lemur gaze up at his king who had a worried expression on his face.

"Julian, where are we?" He asked, Julian put a paw on his white chest.

"Donot be speaking Maurice, you need to keep from talking too much, I am under the impressions that you are having the Madagascar Cold." He said as a flash of lighting struck in the window behind him, which was a bit odd seeing as how they'd had little to no clouds that day. Maurice shook his head, what? That wasn't even possible, to get that specific illness, he would have had to be in contact with something from their old areas of Madagascar, and everything in the lemur habitat was either plastic or grown in the city. Niether Julian or Mort had ever felt the effects of this cold before, so how did this happen? Maurice laid his head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling as Julian stood over him, his striped tail drooping over Maurice's face, forcing him to brush it off and away.

Julian then turned to leave, lifting a hand and curling a finger for Mort to follow him

"Hey wait, where are you going King Julian?" His aye aye asked, at this point very confused and becoming dizzy, King Julian turned to him and spoke.

"I am going...ugh to the flightless birds, that brainy one they've got called kawksoi (I know its kowaski but Julian was always hard with names), I think they can fix you." He then jumped from the bed to the checkered floor and headed out. Remembering he's asked Mort to follow, he was struck by an odd and uncomfortable heavy breathing behind him, the mouse lemur wasn't looking where he was going, more like watching where the royal feet were going.

"Mort?"

"mmhmm!" The tiny lemur nodded anxiuosly

"Actually stay here and shut up a little okay, don't get Maurice to talk or he'll get worse if I am remembering clearly." Mort's eyes fell and he dropped his head and headed back for the recovery room, taking one more look back as the royal feet strode down the hallway.

Julian came through the bolted doorway, loudly. The penguins were in the middle of an unusual card game, each one was standing on one foot, their left fliper atop their head while balancing a bag of seed on it. The king's entrance sent all bags falling to the ground as the lemur opened the door hard enough to have it slam into the wall next to him. All the birds collapsed in suprise and got to their feet. Skipper marched up to Julian and thumped a wing in his chest.

"Hey, what in the name of Nottingham's arc welder are you doing here Ringtail?" He questioned the lemur. Julian smacked his wing off his chest and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Maurice has befallen a terrible illness. I have put him in the hospital but he needs to be be fixed or he will die!" The lemur said in a very dramatic fashion. Everyone stared silently at the ringtail for a moment. Skipper raised an eyebrow.

"...Kowaski, give me options here." The brain of the team quickly analyzed his clipboard.

"Well Skipper you could either try a number of our frontal assaults or evasive manuevers..."

"NOT FOR THE RINGTAIL! Give me options on what he's talking about." Rico tiptoed next ot Kowaski and gave him a light slap on the head. Kowaski grabbed his head and glared mildly at Rico and then reacknowledged his clipboard.

"Oh, Well to determine the steps in taking on lemur medical services, we need to know what we're up against, we need to get to Maurice."

"Sounds appropriate! alright Ringtail we'll help you...now let go of me." Julian shook his head slightly as he had dazed off.

"Huh wha?"

*Smack* Julian cringed as Skipper brought a stiff flipper across the face. Immediatly letting go of the leader penguin, Julian followed the others to the recovery room where Maurice stayed. His tail drooped somewhat against the ground as they made their way to the room, Private noticed he seemed a bit nervous, watching him bite his lower lip every now and again. AS the others trudged ahead, he held back next to the lemur. It was his nature to look out for people and to generally make others feel better, no matter who it was. He strode next to Julian for a minute, the lemur noticing the young bird walking by his side. For a short while they traveled in silence until Private decided to break it. Putting a wing up and giving Julian a light comforting pat seemed like a good idea. Comforting anyone in this way is a good idea...unless your short and they are tall, in which case Private's wing unintentially patted Julian's lower back, right above his tail.

The King whipped around violently with a shocked and angry look on his face as he glared down at the penguin's youngest recruit. Private gluped and took a small step back.

"What is the meaning of this!" Julian's outburst stopped the group as they entered the hallway of Maurice's room. Skipper turned to the lemur and teamate in the back.

"Whats the holdup?" He demanded. Julian stiffened up straight and pointed a black and gray paw at Private.

"I will be telling you what the holding up is, your little buddy was trying to feel my royal booty!" Everyone gave Private a raised eyebrow stare for a sec before Private cleared his throat.

"Ahem, um actually I was just trying to pat him on the back...but I forgot the height difference. Er sorry Julian." He said, turning to the Ringtail while turning a shade of red. Julian narrowed his eyes and then rolled them as he remembered they were on a misson to help his friend and just waved it off. On the way inside he kept an eye on the bird and his slippery flippers.

The birds marched in and hopped atop the bed next to Maurice who was currently blowing his nose. Kowalski stepped up next to him and began scribbling notes on his notepad, eyeballing the grey lemur's every move.

Kowaski turned to the group and gave a brief diagnosis.

"After much time and careful observation I've determined that this lemur has a rather unusual cold. I'll need to to take test samples back with me to run further examinations, oh they'll be groundbreaking!" As he snapped a rubber fin onto his wing, forcing a cringe out of Maurice.

"Uh..Groundbreaking? Julian couldn't we just have Alice take care of this?" The king shook his head

"No Maurice! We cannot trust the people to do what is in your best interests, especially that red haired one, she's very unpretty." He said, muttering the last part to himself.

Skipper, "Kowaski, grab the samples and make haste back to the HQ, Rico! Smokebomb!" The scarred one hurled an ignited black ball they set off as the flightless birds dissapeared. Kowaski and the lemurs coughed and waved the smoke out of their eyes.

Kowaski frowned, "We're supposed to do that as a team." He rolled his eyes and grabbed a few swabs from the vetrinary desk. He wiped a few on maurice's fur and then stuck one in his mouth. Putting them into a matchbox, he turned to Julian and Mort.

"you'll have to bring him in for further testing, but for now just go home and wait for our instructions he said. hopping off the table and leaving out the door. Maurice stood up next to his fellow lemurs.

"The penguin's right Julian, let's get home, I'm sure this will be all over in the morning anyway." He said calmly. The two other lemurs nodded and headed back home for the night. King Julian watched Maurice through the entire trip back, just to be sure that he wasn't getting worse at the wrong time. They arrived back at the habitat and all crawled up onto the bouncy. They found a note on the floor of the rubber entertainment toy next to a few blankets.

_King Julian_

_For the moment keep Maurice warm with these blankets and then come to the HQ in the morning_

_...oh and Private wishes to apologize again for...his actions._

Julian tossed the card aside and looked at Mort and Maurice already tucking themselves into the warm, soft blankets. He snuggled in next to them, pushing Mort onto the other side of Maurice so he wouldn't have to be near him. As the others drifted off to sleep, Julian found himself, restless. After trying repeatedly to fall asleep for a royal nap, he ot up and walked about his habitat. He looked at his boombox longingly, knowing he couldn't get either of his subjects to partake in a bit of dancing at this hour. Shrugging his shoulders he walked out of the habitat for a bit and headed out into the zoo for a walk. He heard splashing coming from the penguin's habitat and found himself heading toward it.

Watching the four take turns diving into the pool and back out, the king noticed each one emerging faster than the other had, they were timing eachother.

Private leaped down into the very bottem of the pool and then made a launch for the surface, shooting up like a bullet and landing atop the concrete surface.

"Good work Private, shaved two secound off your last dive!" The leader said, giving the small one a hi five.

"Thanks Skippah!" He said in his english accent. The four birds shook themselves dry and then began to crawl down into the hatchway inside their home. Julian walked up to the small brid making his way toward the door when he spotted Julian.

"Oh hello, I assume Kowlski's note said I was sor-" Julian held up a paw to stop him.

"Don't be worrying silly penguin, I'm not here about that, besides, I'm knowing it was a accident now." He said.

"Oh, alright...um is there something you needed?" The bird inquired, Julian glanced over to his habitat, unsure of exactly what he was doing over here.

"Uh...well I'm not really able to sleep at the moment, my royal brain is annoying me."

"You mean something's bothering you?" the penguin asked, the lemur king responded.

"Oh yeah, dat." Private was somewhat unsure of what to say next, he watched Julian's tail swish against the ground a bit before speaking again.

"Well, did you want to talk about what's bothering you?" He asked, tilting his head a little. The lemur thought for a secound with a paw to his chin before nodding and taking a seat. Private smiled a bit and then took a seat to listen to the royal ringtail's troubles.

6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

A/N, Well here is my first chapter, tell me what you all think of the pairing, I haven't seen much of it so I'd love as much feedback as possible! thank you


	2. chapter 2

A/N, Hey I am back with the secound chapter. For those of you that don't know, this is a very small slash pairing, nothing too detailed mainly because its not something I'm used t writting, not ot mention its a nickelodeon tv show so what would ya expect huh? haha no that that's been addressed, onward!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters

6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

Private sat down across from the lemur king as he began pulling his problems out and laying them down for the bird to see.

"Yeah so, what bothers me, what is being bothersome to the king, me, is my big booty'd buddy being sick from madagascar cold. That's for starters." He said, exhaling it all in a breath slowly. Private brought a flipper to his beak in question,

"So, you think Maurice has a certain type of cold from back in your old home?" He asked, questioning the distinct probobility of it actually being true. Kowalski had mumbled being unsure of about some of the samples reactions that he'd brought back with him, so it wasn't compleletly impossible for the ringtail to be wrong.

Julian nodded, "I'm not thinking, I'm knowing. Back in my home, the madagascar, there were several of those in our kingdom who had this same thing, noone was sure what to do with them, so they just left and we never saw them again." He said the last part with a tone of heartache in his voice. Those he'd known who'd become sick were cubhood friends of his, really the only friend's he'd known who' tolerate his behavior. The lemur's orange eyes sank to the floor slightly as he found himself revisiting the time of loss in the kingdom. His bottom lip curled a bit as he brought his paws to his lap and closed them.

Private scooted a bit closer to his nieghbor, hoping to distract him for going into a total flashback ,the bird decided to ask some other questions.

"Um, Julian, you said there were other things bothering you too, would you mind telling me?" Julian looked up at Private, his blue eyes filling with interest at the lemur's issues, however insignifigant they may actually be. Julian leaned back, his paws supporting himself as he looked out of the habitat and thought to himself. Finally he sighed and laid on his back facing the sky.

"Well, I'm still kinda mad at that otter." He said, Private raised an eyebrow.

"At Marlene?" he asked

"Yeah her, it wasn't fair of her to be toying with my emotions, which are only the king's to be toying with. Back in the Madagascar there wasn't alot of girls I was very into, you know courting, but now that I actually was finding myself to be liking her, even in her gross state, mmm I don't know. Maybe I was just happy someone was finally approaching me like dat." He said, interweaving his fingers on his belly. The penguin nodded in understanding, he'd seen how Marelene had, while not intentionally, humilated and hurt the lemur when he asked her to be with him. Granted the penguin knew she was wild when she'd been outside the zoo, but Julian hadn't.

The bird found himself also in a way wanting to pry a bit deeper into what the lemur's tastes were, they never got to really chat like this so why not take it a step further?

"So, what would you say, um, you look for in a er mate?" The young penguin asked, somewhat uncomfortable with asking such a thing. The lemur looked at him for a sec with a puzzled look on his face, unsure of how to reply.

"eeh, what?" He asked, still in somewhat caught in the headlights expression. He didn't expect the youngest of the flightless birds really to even know anything about that part of life actually.

"Um, what, do you prefer for someone you want to court?"

"I um, well, someone not really like me I guess. Theres only one me and thats how I want it." He didn't really feel comfortable going very deep into this stuff unless it was with Maurice, his big boned buddy was to him always a great listener and adviser. Private decided to push things once again,

"Strictly lemur or any other species?" He asked this merely because Julian seemed to be a bit of an open creature if he was willing to go for otters, what other animals did he fancy?

"Penguin."

"Penguin oh that-WAIT WHAT?" The bird put on a shocked expression, had the lemur even een paying attention or was he actually serious? The lemur king shifted his eyes to the right for a minute before making contact with the bird again. He then shrugged his shoulders with both hands in the air as if to say, I don't know?

" Well I do have to admit, you penguins are very soft and cleanly. I don't like big messes in my kingdom and everytime I come down to your home its all neat and organized." He said somewhat shyly, pulling his knees into toward himself.

"So...you..are um interested in us?" Private asked, gesturing toward him and his HQ. Julian nodded, he'd never really brought it up to anyone before, not expecially wanting to hear anyone tell him unwanted things he did not wish to hear. Private looked down at his feet and shifted them side to side a bit before responding.

"Er, how really attracted to us, are you, would you say?" Julian stood up and walked up to the bird, looking down at him, he ran a furry grey and black paw along Private's cheek, the penguin froze as the lemur ruffled his feathers along the back of his neck a bit. His ringed tail gently wrapping around the bird's waist. Private had not a clue as to what to do at the moment, all he could find the ability to do was stare just as deeply into the ringtail's deep orange and yellow eyes as he was staring into the penguin's icey blue ones.

" enough, I think." He said simply. Just as he'd finished the sentence, the lid to the hatch slammed open. Skipper popped out on his feet, catching the ringtail with his arm around his teammate.

"Ringtail, Privvate, explaination, pronto!" He demanded, the lemur immediatly let go of the bird and unraveled his long bushy tail.

"Eh, I think now is a good time for me to be tending to my big booty's buddy." And with that he raced off into his own habitat and hid. Skipper approached the young bird with questions.

"Private why are you still out here? lights were out half an hour ago! And what was that crazy ringtail doing?" Private found it truly ifficult to respond, he took a minute to find the right words to his commander.

"Skippah, I...I think Julian's um...interested in..well me actually." He said, Skipper's eyes widened.

"He's what?" Private knew he heard him the first time.

"Yes, I'm very confused." Skipper looked at him and then back over to the lemur habitat, what in the name of George Washington's wooden teeth waas going on here? He glared at the lemur habitat fiercely. In a small growl he addressed Private.

"Private I want you to go to bed, I'm going to talk to Julian." And with that he marched off, Private looked over somewhat worriedly, he knew Skipper's "talks" involved force, the question was, exactly how much woul be taken out on the ringtail for putting him into this very perculiar situation.

Private climbed down the hatch and into his bed, not truly able to fall asleep, several minutes went by and he noticed Skipper climbing down the hatch and into his bunk, Skipper's left wing had small drops of dark red substance on it, apparently he seemed to not notice at all as he climbed into bed and dozed off. Private lay in bed now wondering exactly what in the world had happened over there? He would find out all soon enough in the morning, however soon that would be.

66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

A/N, Hey heres the secound chapter, hope you all enjoy, I'm going to try not to rush Maurice's treatments but tell me if you feel like i'm running through things fast, thank you, reviews are always welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N, Hello there people. Well I'm found myself into the third chapter of this and I hope you are enjoying it so far. My updates are alittle scattered because of school so I don't really have a true schedule with this story.

666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

Morning broke for the team of arctic birds, sunshine blaring across the entire zoo, filling it with light. Skipper dived into the water and practiced his speed as he launched through the water, nailing several targets he'd set up for annilation. He soon hopped out and returned to the others to awake them for the daily schedule of training, drills, but first, some coffee. He slide down the sides of the ladder and stood before the sleeping birds.

"Okay, sleeping time's over!" he bellowed through a bullhorn, sending all the teammates at once bolting out of their cubbyholelike beds. Private rubbed his eyes as Rico yawned, accidentally vomiting up a screwdriver and kicking it aside. Kowalski shook himself to conciousness with a few good slaps of his own flipper and he was awake.

Skipper, "Gentlmen, we are in a compromising scenario here." Kowalski looked around in confusion.

"Uh, in the HQ Skipper? My god I should have had that secound base up and operational alre-" Skipper smacked him lightly.

"I'm using metaphors here man! Here is representing the time I've been recently introduced to something very shocking and unexpected, putting us all in a tough position!" All the birds looked in curiously.

Private spoke up, "Um Skippah, would this have anything to do with last night's um...discoveries?" Skipper hesitated before narrowing his eyes at the thought of the rambungious lemur.

"While I'm not at liberty to divulge any and all information at this time, know that while we are aiding friend Maurice in his illness, keep your distance from the ringtail. My trust in that unruly ruler has hit a brand new low. We've had a disscussion over the matters of the issue but its my assumption Julian will pursue said matters again." This statement put great deal of confusion and interest in Kowalski, he whipped out his clipboard faster than one could blink while walking a plank above maneating mannatees. Private took on a look of uncertainty in his leader's plan, he himself didn't really think this was that big of an issue to deal with, sometimes things happened to get blown out of proportion around the zoo.

Kowalski walked up to the steroscope and peeked outside as he saw Alice heading into the medical ward with Maurice and Mort. He quickly motioned to Skipper to take a look for himself.

Skipper, well thats one problem down pat, Alice,while scary, unnerving and terrible dancer, has better knowledge of what would get Maurice back into shape in no time! Though I worry about the mammal enduring those needles, ugh!" He said with a small shiver to himself.

Private walked up to Skipper as the team began falling in for medical duty, hoping to get some kind of answer out of the leader, hopefully the truth.

"Hey Skippah, did you know your flipper was bleeding?" Skipper looked at his hurt wing and hid it behind his back,

"Why um no Private, I was unaware of that."

"Yes it was fine before you.." Private stopped in midsentence as he had a feeling he didn't wish to end it. Skipper looked at him questioningly.

"Before I what? Private, spit it out man comeon!" He said giving the younger bird a small wack in the side of the head.

"Before you went to go talk to King Julian." He said, clamping his beak tightly shut and pulling both flippers to his face, his eyes wide as dinnerplates. Skipper looked at the porthole in the wall and merely glared.

"What's ur point Private?" With that, Private turned and headed for the hatchway, Skipper on his tail the entirety of the trip.

Private scaled over the fence and hopped into the habitat of the lemurs, crawling atop the royal bouncy where he knew the lemurs usually slept.

"Private stop wait! Its not what you-" It was then, that Private came upon the form of Julian, the ringtail lay slumped on his side in the corner of the bouncy. His fur was ruffled and sticky with dried blood, the young bird could only gasp at his condition as he approached the injured lemur. Julian's crown was knocked away and off to the side, his eyes closed tightly, his breaths were shallow and jagged as he shivered continously. Private looked at what appeared to be a trail of bloody drops and smears from where the lemur had originally been standing when the violence ensued. It trailed from the far corner of the bouncy, toward the middle of the cement platform, where its darkest pools of the dried crimson had hardened through the night.

The leader took a small and insignifigant step forth, the words at this point were a miracle if they found a way out of the penguin's beak. He'd not truly found the damage he'd done to the ringtail until this moment. Private stood, speachless at what he saw, everything, all the pain that was brought here, the blood, the brutailty of it all was truly too much to actually bear for him. He crept up along Julian's side and got next to his face. He noticed that the lemur was not actually unconcious but merely shivering from...his presence. The young penguin softly placed a wing on the mammal's shoulder, he could feel Julian shaking miserably.

"Oh...Julian." Private said, kneeling next to the ringtail. The lemur managed to crack his eye open to see Private before closing it again tightly as tears streamed out. Private gently as a feather landing on the ground, ran a flipper down Julian's tear stained face. He sat for a moment, his mind pleading with the world for this to be a terrible dream, for this to be simple nightmare from one of Rico's horrorfilm nights. As he came to realize though, the sticky blood getting upon his feathers was very real, the crumpled figure before him was very hurt. Skipper stood back, his head so low into his own feathers he felt as though he would pierce his chest with his beak. Private stood and walked toward his commander, strong and upright, a burning glare in his eyes that could melt three quarter inch steel. Getting face to face with the older bird, he spoke.

"Get Alice." He said in a voice that seemed to want to spit out the very words uttered from the bird.

Skipper, "Private, he wouldn't listen. I didn't want to hurt ringtail but I thought he was...going to hurt yo-"

Private, "GET ALICE! JULIAN NEEDS A HOSPITAL NOW!" He yelled infront of his commander. Skipper found himself in a state of true shock at everything that had just been divulged to himself and his youngest recruit.

Skipper looked up at him in shame and nodded and turned around to head toward the zookeeper's office. Private stood for a moment and watched him go, he truly had no words for the penguin to this day he'd come to know as his hero, he had no words at all for Skipper. He walked back to Julian, who's shivering seemed to calm a bit as the other bird left the area.

"It's okay Julian, its just me, Private." He said sitting down next to him. Julian sniffled a bit as he tired to sit up but the penguin held him in place as to not hurt himself further.

Julian, "That big stupid flightless idiot came into my home after I got back, he pushed me against the wall and put his flipper into my face! He told me to be staying away from you. I said I was in no way under his commanding and would do whatever I wish, and then he attacked me! he dragged me out of my bouncy and kept hitting me." He said to the bird as he fought back tears from his injuries. Private didn't have an answer, he just sat silently as Julian continued.

"My loyal subjects Maurice and Mort tried to help but he knocked them to sleep Thats when I hit him with a stick of bamboo, then he came back and started throwing me against the floor, he made me fall and get cut alot on my own edges of my kingdom, it hurt terribly so then I bit him. as hard as I could." Private noted the blood he's seen on Skipper had apparently been his own. He also noticed as Julian spoke, he had a slight reddish tint on his upper and lower jaws. Julian's eyes glistened as he covered them with his paws, his shaking figure pulled tightly into a small and secure ball. The young caddet went over and grabbed his nieghbor's crown and handed it to him. Julian took himself out of his state of trama long enough to replace said crown and then return to his previous motions. Private watched as Alice began chasing the leader of the penguins as he led her toward the lemur habitat. She saw the ringtail's state and gasped.

Alice," Oh my gosh, what's happened to you? First you're buddy gets sick and needs antibiotics and now you're really hurt? What's going on here?" She said to herself quietly as she entered the habitat. She walked over with a clean towel and scooped up the lemur gently, trying to make contact with his wounds.

"Ur gonna need stitches to close these up, come on." He did his best to relax in her arms as she carried him away. Seen from the penguins p.o.v and the lemurs, she was a creepy being to the zoo's animals, Alice was also known for her ability to make things in the zoo work out, giving the animals she put her time into, that ever so small bit of trust in her actions. Private watched them go off into the hospital an the door closing behind them before heading to the HQ to tell the rest of the team what Skipper had done. In no way did he ever enjoy the duty of being a tattletale, but when people got seriuosly hurt like this, it was up to someone to at least do what they felt was truly the right thing.

6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

A/N, Well here is chapter three, I know it was a bit graphic so I upped the rating on it for safety, please go forth with you opinions and tell me anything you think could be redone or altered in any way. The next chapter will mostly involve Julian and Maurice seeing as how they have now both been hospitalized. Take care and see you all later!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N, Greeting ppl, Thank you for all the reviews on my Penguins of Madagascar fic slipping away, very happy to hear you are all enjoying it, therefore I bring you chapter four! This is mostly going to be between Maurice and Julian.

66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

The two loyal bird soldiers Rico and Kowalski came to the meeting place Private had requested them at through a series of hush hush communications when their leader was far enough out of earshot. Both the birds disliked the idea strongly of going behind their own commanding officer, not to mention just the thought of the grevious punishments they would be held to if found out. It was late evening, the gates had been closed for a few hours, the tall lamps that outtfitted the zoo glowed brightly as the night's darkness crept onto the habitats of the New York animals homes. The brains and brawn of the team used the shadows, hiding their movements as Private watched them enter the habitat. The HQ was the least safe place to carry on a conversation like this, so they had found one area that they knew Skipper refused to be for any reason, Joey's Pen.

Joey the kangaroo was very strict against tresspassers, forcing Private to meet with him earlier that day and make a bribe to the roo in exchange for using his pen as a temporary meeting room, he would provide Joey with signifigant amounts of extra food during the meeting as to keep his mind off their presence.

Rico and Kowalski leaped into the pen and landed softly. Joey looked up and glared, looking back at Private who nodded and pointed at them before returning to his evening bale of food. Rico and Kowalski came over to Private with flippers in the air in question, why were they here and Skipper not?

"Alright I asked you both here because I have to tell you something. " Private said, a knot building in his chest as he found what he had to tell his teammates hard to say.

"Skipper, attacked Julian last night, thats why he was bleeding this morning." Both birds tilted their heads in question as Private went on.

"The reason I'm thinking he did was because of Julian's um...well preference issues he has at the moment."

Kowalski, "Err Preference issues? What are you talking about Private?" Private slightly rolled his eyes at having to explain the uncomfortable situation at hand.

"Um yes King Julian is um...well...he likes, penguins." The size of both his teammates eyes had doubled at this point, Rico quickly vomiting up a paper bag and then vomiting into it. Kowalski held a flipper to his chin as he put on a look of both shock and explorative thought. Private felt quite uncomfortable having to speak of this without Julian to know about it or consenting for others to hear about but it was desprate times.

"So, Julian his found interest in penguins, what like guy penguins?" Private looked at the floor as he responded.

"well he told me that and uh..hugged me." He said, trying to get the last words out of his beak as fast as he could.

"He hugged you?"

"But Julian's always been touchy feely, he does it alot."

"Yeah but not really to anyone but well..us." Kowalski said, Rico nodding in agreement. The scarred bird recalled the time Julian had been convinced by Phil an Mason to be good to everyone or else, so he'd tried and tried again to hold the scarred bird, only to get pushed away and then punched after the thrird attempt, Rico was never one for contact, unless it was from his doll he held so dearly. Private had to admit, Kowalski was right, Julian never seemed to touch any of the other zoo animals since they'd been there. Kowaski brought up an important part of the meeting.

"So, what about Skipper, you're saying he attacked Julian, so what are we going to do? He's our leader, our commanding officer, his rank outweighs us."

Private, 'I know...I don't know what to do, but something must be done. People can't be attacked just because they feel a certain way about someone."

6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

Alice laid the hurt lemur on the operating table, first putting a few cloths down to keep him from feeling the cold metal. Julian winced as his bruises made connection with the tabletop, trying not to move much. The zookeeper prepped a needle to put the lemur under for the stitches, checking the fluid level, she turned around to face him, hiding it from his eyes as not to scare the little guy. She complained a great deal about her job, the hours, the requirments and the constant randomness that was brought to her attention during each day at work. She did however have a heart for each creature that she cared after, seeing any of them hurt was difficult for her, but she knew how to press on and handle the problem as she'd been taught by her employers when she'd first signed on at the New York city zoo.

Quickly laying a blanket over Julian's head she inserted the needle and pushed the sedative in and then pulled it out and then wiped it with an antiseptic dab. Julian cried out a small whimper as he felt the needle go in and then be retracted. He tried to move and get away from being poked anymore, but soon felt the urge to actually stay there and take a nap. His eyelids became three times their original weight as he drifted off to sleep. After checking to make sure he was fully unconcious, the doctor began the stitches, first finding the placement of each wound, shaving the fur that was in the way, having done this for a period of twenty years, he'd become a barber of sorts when it came to prepping the stitching areas, only taking off as much fur as needed so as to grow back faster and not be as revealing for visitors. Each wound seemed to require a little more then ten give or take a few. In two hours he was done. He gave the lemur a little pat on the head and then returning to his office to tell Alice he was finished.

Maurice shook his head as he stirred in his sleep before finally waking himself up. Taking a look around from where he lay, he was back in the recovery room of the zoo hospital. His eyes suddenly fell onto the unconcious form of his king Julian the XIII. Julian lay on his back, several areas on his stomach and chest was shaved and stitched up, the bruises never showed through his fur, but before Maurice had been knocked out, he'd seen his king be beaten in many areas. Maurice picked himself up and dragged himself over to Julian.

"Your Highness?" Julian didn't respond, Maurice watched the stomach of his king rise and fall at an even pace, maurice took a paw and rubbed Julian's shoulder to wake him up easily. Julian opened his eyes lazily, letting them focus for a minute before turning his attention to his aye aye.

"Mmaurice." He said with a smile, tying to lean forward to support himself on his elbows, he quickly flinched down onto his back again after feeling a sharp jab of pain in his abdomen.

"Don't lean up your majesty, I'm still here, Julan what happened? Skipper just ran over to our home last night and started going mad crazy on you, what was his problem?" Julian sighed as he met his secound in command's gaze, he couldn't lie to his friend, he needed to know the whole speel while he had the chance of doing it in private. Julian took a breath and then sighed again.

"Maurice, I need to tell you something, donot be judging me or well you know, your exiled." He said in slight humor, trying to lighten the mood before he dived into nail biting honesty. Maurice sat on his rump and face his lemur king to listen to Julian's confession.

"I am...liking um...the penguins..as in you know er like like." He said uneasily, Maurice was unsure of really what to say to him after hearing this.

"You have a crush on the penguins? But there aren't even any females here?"

"Yeah...I know that." Julian said in a somewhat shameful voice, he felt very unkingly having kept something of this magnitude from his friend all this time. Maurice turned away for a secound as he tried to proccess all this at once, it was true that while in madagascar, Julian didn't pay mind to very many of the ladies that were in the lemur kingdom, even as they ussually swarmed him for attention. Julian ran one of his finger along the stitches of his stomach, trying to push some of the fur over the ugliness of it. The both of them were silent for a moment before Maurice spoke again.

"Well your majesty, all I know is do what makes you happy, thats what I believe in. Heck we only have the one life anyway right?" Julian looked at his friend and let a grin come agross his face, he always knew what to say to make the king fall into a better mood. Giving Maurice a one armed hug around the shoulder, he nodded.

"Yeah, that is what I'm wanting to hear." Julian's long striped tail began to swoosh around a bit as he let it fluff around and get in his aye aye's face. Maurice sneezed and casually pushed the offending tail out of his veiw before laying back down to rest, Julian laid down again also, suddenly coming upon the realization of the be he was on.

"Maurice?"

"Yes your majesty?"

"Hand me that remote, this bed needs some rocking relaxation!" Maurice rolled his eyes and dug around for the remote and handed it to the lemur king who clicked a button and then made the bed shake and vibrate. The lemurs both looked at eachother and laughed as the bed continued to jiggle and shake.

Watching the two madagascar natives through the window behind them, was Skipper. He pulled away from the glass, so confused and so lost in what to do and take from what he'd come upon. He knew what he'd done to Julian was wrong, despicable by some of the old ones of the penguin code and he knew he had to come to terms with it by doing the only thing nessesary at that point, apologize face to face and pray the lemurs would be merciful to him after causing them such pain. He took a large swallow of air to push out any other thoughts of running off as he had before with the doctor and the needles, heck he'd watched both the lower mammals take the evil doctor's abuse like men, granted Julian had to be covered by ablanket but still, the point remained, he had to make this right, not just for them, for his team, and for Private escpecially. He' seen how he'd broken the young cadet's spirit inside when he'd found out what his leader had done out of pure fear and anger and ashamed didn't even scratch the surface on how he would descibe his feelings on how he'd behaved.

Skipper opened the window behind them and stealthily made an entrance as the lemurs entertained eachother with the bed's levels and vibration settings. He closed his eyes for a secound and asked to anyone how was listening at that moment to him personally to let him make it through this alright. He then shimmed up the bedpost and stood on the bedside table. Julian and Maurice continued to laugh and flail around, julian keeping somewhat still because of his condition. Skipper brought a flipper to his beak and coughed to draw attention to himself next to them. Julian's laugh died very quickly as he recognized that assertive cough, he clicked for the bed to stop and sat upright. Slowly and feeling his heartrate begin to increase, his eyes eyes widened and turned to the left. Maurice noticed his king's strange actions and turned in the same direction his king faced to find the leader of the penguins before him. The one who had hurt him so badly and brough him here because of a misunderstanding. Maurice's glare and narrowing eyes were bad, but they couldn't be comapared with what his king Julian brought. Julian said nothing as his gaze fell upon Skipper, at first he felt nothing but terror and cold chill running down his spine. As he looked at Skipper though, his emotions altered, seeing the bird before him, standing with a look of shame and regret on his face. Julian's features darkened with a blackness as the fear subsided replaced with a new growing sensation of angery disbelief. Shocking to him that of all people, HE would dare come here and show his face before the king and his aye aye.

Skipper found himself slightly growing smaller as the lemurs orange eyes began burning into him, as if telepathically stripping the feathers and flesh off the bird alive one piece at a time. Julian, in his own time,found the strength to stand and face the penguin. He approached Skipper, each step slow and carrying more menace than the last. Skipper watched as he saw the numerous scars that decorated the ringtail's body, each a dark visual memory that would haunt him for years to come. Julian came closer and closer till he towered before the flightless bird, his paws at his side, knuckles cracking and flexing into tight fists, staring down at him with a icelike but inferno blazing gleam in the ringtail's eyes that simply read,

_HOW DARE YOU?_

_666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666_

A/N, There you go for chapter four! Haha leave you all with enough suspense? Originally I was going to have Skipper try to make a break for it, but I don't really think that's very true to his character, granted the epsiode NeedlePoint is a different story! If anyone would like to pitch their ideas to me, feel free to and I can see what I like an what might work but for now I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll be bringing another to you all sometime in the next week or so! Thanks and please review and voice your opinions!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N, HELLO! Hey thank you for the reviews and I'm very happy where this is going, things will possibly be coming to a close down the road soonish so be prepared for that! haha, anyway onward!

* * *

Julian stood infront of Skipper, His tall figure looming over the penguin as his gaze perpetually barbequed the bird. Skipper took a cautionary step back, bumping into a lamp. Julian stood silent for a moment before raising his paws and slamming Skipper into the wall behind him. Skipper banged his head against it hard, the lemur had him by the shoulders, holding him firmly against the wall.

"What in the darkest hell are you doing here you flightless filth!" Julian growled, Skipper's eyes met his as his head hung low, he'd known this meeting would be anything but easy and so far he was right.

"Ring-King Julian, I-"

"WHAT GIVES YOU ANY RIGHT TO SHOW YOUR FACE HERE? TELL ME!!!" He said, shoving the bird into the wall with even more force. Skipper felt his back collide with the firm wall, the ringtail was if anything manic with anger he expressed to the penguin, he had to start this, hopefully Julian would allow him to speak.

"Julian I'm here to apologize. I didn't mean to do this to you, to Maurice and sad eyes too. I just...uh-"

The lemur cut him off again in impatience.

"You Just WHAT???!!!" Julian bellowed in Skipper's face, small drips of slaiva spewing from his mouth as he yelled at the penguin. Skipper could see he wasn't finished either.

"You just wanted to come here and see your handywork is that being it." He yelled, gesturing a paw to his abdomen, now covered in scars. Skipper looked down at Julian's midsection, and bit his lip, he was truly stunned at how much damage he'd put the lemur through. It was true, the scars were hard to look at, most of them still bleeding minorly, but that wasn't what had struck the lemur hardest, it was what Skipper didn't do.

He DIDN'T check to see if Julian was actually okay once he had cooled down and cleared his head, he DIDN'T go for help until he was forced to by his own teammates. The lemur was left alone, bleeding and imobile and helpless. Julian was left alone to die, cold and shredded, his own royal life source dripping all over the bouncy as he'd strained the last of his muscle to crawl next to his knocked out subjects. He knew niether Maurice or Mort would be able to save him if he went into shock or began to bleed even more profusely. With only himself to know it was the end and which is what he'd told himself as he stayed curled in a tight ball for warmth. He wanted only to sleep but the chill of the evening kept him from doozing off into eternal slumber. It was the secound most terrifying experiance of the lemur's life.

"Julian listen to me I-"

"NO SILLY PENGUIN! You listen to me!" The lemur's intensity grew as he towered over Skipper. The leader of the penguins stood his ground and jabbed a flipper into Julian's stomach, knocking him back from the bird. Julian grabbed his stomach and leaned over as intense pain jolted through him. His knees buckled and he sank to the floor. Gasping for a breath, he asked the penguin in a groaning voice as he recovered from the punch.

"Have you any sense of what its like to think your going to be dead? To know that noone else knows that at that moment your dying and noone cares!" He asked as he took a knee on the bed, his eyes piercing into Skippers soul.

"I did not want to kill you! I didn't even want to hurt you but you wouldn't listen! You always had to have things your way, I'm here to tell you that doesn't happen much here!" Skipper barked back at the ringtail. Maurice stood and stepped infront of his king.

"Skipper, we both know you'd better leave this place when I'm asking you to politely." Maurice said through gritted teeth, still baffled that the unruly penguin would come back to haunt them. Skipper eyeballed the aye aye, he'd never seen the big boned one fight much of anything before, though the way he stood before him now obviously told him that it wasn't the first time Julian had been defended by his right hand friend.

"I'm not the bad guy in this, you both should know better than that." Skipper said.

"YOU'RE NOT THE BAD GUY?? KING JULIAN COULD HAVE BLED OUT AND DIED RIGHT THERE! YOU KNOCKED ME OUT SO I COULDN'T HELP HIM! " Maurice screamed at Skipper, pointing a finger from Julian back to the penguin. The verbal attacks and the shoving became enough for Skipper as he stood firmly, giving into his sarcastic tones.

"Oh what a tramatic loss, Maurice why do you even give a rip about this bonehead? He's spoiled as all get out and now word is he's eyeballing my men! You ask yourself, why do I defend this so called "king" anyway?" Julian looked at Maurice, not paying any attention to the penguin now, but on what the response would be from his loyal subject. Maurice glared and crossed his arms. If you'd been around Madagascar long enough, you'd know why we are loyal to him. Sure when you have all the luxuries of the world here, its easy to say he isn't very much to look at, but before we got stuck here, Julian was more of a leader than you could ever see! He's kept us safe from the foosa, he found us shelter, he even gave you his plane to get off the island. His actions aren't an issue to me, nor is it who he wishes to be with romantically, besides, who are you to get between people, one of your teammates woos a plastic doll!" He said.

As Skipper just opened his beak to reply, none other than Private came in through the window and made his way onto the bed.

"Skippah...what are you doing here?" He asked. the novice of the group had come to see Julian, not expecting to see his leader in the same room.

Skipper cleared his throat, "Private I came here for one reason and one reason only. I only came here to apologize for my actions, I was out of line in what I did and for that I am sorry. Whether you forgive me in time is your own decision, see you back at the HQ Private." And with that he turned and headed out the window, leaving the young bird and the lemurs atop the bed.

Private looked at Julian, seeing the scars on his body and then looking at Maurice who, while feeling better having been ingested with medicine, was still a bit under the weather. He walked up next to the lemur and gently traced a flipper down one of the scars.

"Does it still hurt, Julian?" The lemur king gave a small nod as he looked down at Private, the bird looking up at him with such innocent blue eyes.

"When are you to be released?" He asked, Julian gave a shrug, noone knew when they would be out of the ward, perhaps when things started hurting less. Julian put a paw on Private's shoulder and gave a small smile.

"Why are you here...yeah sorry I kinda forgot your name." Julian said, feeling a bit dumb, Private smiled back and waved it off.

"It's Private, I wanted to see how you were doing." He said in a polite tone of voice, Maurice walked over to the far side of the bed, he knew when to mind his own buisness. Julian looked back at himself and sighed.

"I..ugh I feel really ugly." He said gesturing toward the scars, to him they were practically glowing and screaming with disgustingness. Private laid a flipper on Julian's stomach.

"You don't look ugly, besides I'm sure the doctor knows your fur will brow back soon anyway. Not to mention, scars look cool, look at Rico for example." He said trying to bring up the lemur's spirits.

Julian, "hmm this is true, Chico is rather, intimidating!"

Maurice "Cough cough Rico Cough!"

Julian, "Ah right Rico."

The two of them fell silent as the looked at eachother, Private looked up at Julian before moving in to give him a hug. Julian wrapped his arms around the penguin and rubbed his small black and white head.

"I'm glad your okay Julian." Private whispered, Julian leaned over and nuzzled Private's neck, brushing his soft lemur fur against the bird's slick feathers.

"Thank you...Private."

* * *

A/N, Well here is chapter five, tell me what you all think. I didn't want to go too much into the slashy stuff and wanted to really keep it more like adopted brother big brother thing, minus the whole different species thing! haha please review if you can and I will begin chapter 6 as soon as I can.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N, Hey readers, I'm happy to see aot of you are still enjoying the ride this story is giving, so I sadden to tell you that this shall be the endpoint, I'm finding myself flogged with finals and other matters of dire importance so I wouldn't be able to update for longer than acceptable. Thank you all for reading this story though, your comments are all appreciated.

* * *

Skipper sat down at the desk in the HQ. The cold concrete walls sending a rush of chills through him as he stared at the table in front of him. He found himself bothered, annoyed and unsure of the future that lay before him. For the leader of penguins, having to question destiny every now and again was his job when it came to certain points. Where would the team go from here? Could everything soon enough be as it was before? Had he potentially brought an end to all he had built up through these years? The penguin held his head in his flippers, growling slightly as he proccessed all the what if's of his actions consequences.

The hatch door creaked open, skipper turning an eye toward the ladder as he watched and watched as Rico decending the ladder. The scarred bird saw him and waved, no anger toward the leader it appeared. Skipper needed to console with someone, even if that someone was difficult to understand and manic.

"Rico, come sit." He orderd his teammate. Rico nodded and pulled up a chair. Skipper pondered what to start off with, not knowing the way his teammate had felt throughout all of this. Rico waited, the bird letting his eyes fall toward his webbed feet and wagged one side to side.

Skipper blew out a breath,

"Rico, you know all about the incident between Julian and myself right?" This earned him a smiling nodding beak from the scarred one.

"...And do you also know why what was done was done?" He asked in a hush hush type tone, even though his was speaking to one of his own. Rico put on a thinking expression and rubbed his chin before shaking his head no.

"Sigh, It was because I overreacted toward Julian about that he's, well attracted to Private." This forced the scarred bird to stand and hacked up a ball pen hammer and advance from the table toward the fishbowl entrance. Skipper grabbed his flipper.

"Rico stand down, what I was about to say is that I shouldn't have done what I did. See you were just very bothered by what was told to you and you were about to do the same exact thing!" Rico stared at him with a raised eyebrow expression. Skipper put a flipper to his forehead and sat the bird down again, it was clear that his brother in black an white felt similar as the leader of the birds did, Skipper inwardly appreciated this, helping him feel less singled out and terrible, but he couldn't have his men making the same mistakes as he had.

"Rico, as much as I appreciate your protection of Private, that is not an issue for us to be involved in. As much as I hate to say it, niether of us has clearence into that field, thats just like someone coming between me and Marlene." Again the penguin rose, mishearing the penguin and ready for action once again. Skipper lightly smacked him.

"Stand down man! I was making a refference, noone's bothering me and Marlene, understand?" He spoke slowly to get through to the explosives expert. Rico nodded and gulped down his hammer with a sad look on his face. Skipper in a way admired Rico, while insane, he was the first to jump to a friend's or teammate's help, not caring if danger lie ahead, just as long as those who he cared about were safe. Skipper laid a flipper on Rico's as he spoke,

"Soldier what I want you to take from this is...well this, you should never, for whatever reason, get between someone's affection for another. If the other returns it and finds themself happy, then they are not to be disturbed about it, you understand?" Rico stared at him, his face motionless as he processed what was spilling from his leader's beak. The expolsives expert finally looked at Skipper straight in the eyes before nodding and motioning if there was anything else. Skipper shook his head and watched as the other penguin left to go watch TV. Skipper finally noticed Kowalski standing near the far coner opposite to him, holding his trusty clipboard and calm and collected look on his face.

Skipper, "Kowaski...err how long have you been standing there?" Kowalski viewed his clipboard and then did a mash up of time on his bead count chart.

"Aproximetly, fifteen minutes, I entered behind Rico." He said short and to the point. Skipper nodded.

"So I'm to assume you overheard the coversation between Rico and I?" Again the brainy penguin nodded, giving a small smile to Skipper. Skipper grinned inside, now he had seemingly won back his team, if Private were to return so they could all finally put this behind them, everything would be alright again.

Time seemed to slow as Skipper at last heard his youngest recruit decend from the fishbowl entrance hatch. He watched in silence as Private made his way into the HQ, getting to the bottom and walking up to the table where Skipper sat. He took a seat and put both flippers on the table, not meeting the commander's eyes immediatly but soon enough lifting his head to face Skipper.

"Maurice and Julian have calmed down a bit." He said in one little breath, merely tossing the sentence out to find a way to break the ice as it were between the two of them. Skipper watched Private as he shifted in his seat a bit. Trying to help bring the oncoming conversation into action, he tried throwing some possible compassion toward the lemurs condition.

"Oh um, how are they? I didn't really get to ask...Is Julian still in any pain?" He asked wincing slightly as he asked it, believing it was a stupid question considering he'd seen the scars, and those never felt fine again right away. Private nodded,

"Yes he's kinda sore from when you punched him in his scar on his belly...yeah so that's not feeling too good but otherwise, he's okay." Skipper put a wing to his forehead,

"Private, lets just get this over with, I can't take the guilt anymore. Look, you and I both know what was done to ringtail was wrong, I know that now, and I'm willing to face whatever punishment deemed nessessary." He said with a heavy breath. His thoughts led to the ringtail and what possible torture would be in store for Skipper. Private looked at him directly into his eyes, as if trying to read the bird, was he telling the truth? Would he really face up to Julian's prompt discipline expectation? Skipper stared back at Private, his patience beginning to wear thin with the stare he was being fed.

"Private? As I was saying, has Julian...Has Julian come up with how I am to repay him?" Private looked down and then nodded, this made Skipper somewhat nervous at his recruit's reaction to the question, what in god's name was in store for him?

Private spoke at last, letting the final strings from the drama orchestra string out.

"Skipper, Julian and I talked about what happened, he knows now why you did what you did and just lost control. He wants things to be back to normal as much as you do, his fur will grow over the scars soon enough, he wants you to do things for him. " Skipper leaned in,

"What?"

"He actually kinda had a list at his home, um, I can't remember all the details but yeah your to be his personal aid for two weeks at least. He might chage his mind, depending but thats all I know about that."

Hearing this, Skipper blew out a breath of relief. He'd invisoned the lemur sawing off one of the penguin's feet or throwing metal ninja stars at him on a spinning dartboard. While he would have to put up with everything that drove him crazy that the ringtail did, he would also have to learn to accept and work with it, like Maurice seemed to.

"Well, If Ringtail wants my help, tell him I'll be more then happy to assist." He said, taking a nervous gulp as he spoke. Private let a smile waft across his beak, he stood up and gave the commander a small but meaningful hug.

"Thanks Skipper, this means alot to him and me just so you know." Skipper looked down at the bird and patted him with a wing.

"I know Private, its just good to have you back beside me."

* * *

A/N, Theres the end, I know tears are in my eyes too its okay to cry, we all do. lol well I'm glad everyone enjoyed this as much as I did and wether I do a sequel to this or not is up in the air right now but if anyone has ideas they'd like ot share felle free to contact me and give a shout. Review if you may, I always enjoy reading people's opinions.

"


End file.
